XXXVI EDITORS PREFACE."deliberatur secundum statutum" or "juxta formam statuti &c." inthe memorandum, to which the reader's attention has been called. It would be wrong to assume that the culprit, who pleaded his clergysuccessfully, escaped without any punishment, beyond the humiliationsattending his arrestment, preliminary trial by the grand jury, and arraignŽment. By I Edw. VI. c. 3 (repealed by 3, 4 Edw. VI. c. 16), feloniousclerks, who obtained Benefit of Clergy with power of making purgation,were committed for an entire year as " slaves " to any person who wouldtake them, before being allowed to purge themselves. Delivered tothe bishop " absque purgatione faciendS,," they were enslaved for fiveyears to masters, who had express authority to correct and govern themwith stripes and chains. In times not affected by this short-livedstatute, on being delivered to the bishop without power of makingpurgation, the felonious clerk derived from his privilegium clericale nobrighter prospect than that of remaining in prison to the end of hisdays, unless he had influence with which to procure the sovereign'spardon; and there is no reason for thinking the discipline of a bishop'sprison milder than the discipline of a secular gaol. When he was freeto make his purgation at the earliest opportunity, he had to wait thebishop's pleasure for the opportunity. On coming before the bishopor the bishop's deputy, it was incumbent on him to swear he wasinnocent of the crime laid to his charge, "although," says Blackstone," he had been previously convicted by his country, or perhaps by hisown confession." The timidity and reserve, with which Blackstonemakes the latter suggestion, at least imply a disposition to think itno affair of every-day occurrence for a culprit thus to swear himselfinnocent of the charge in respect to which he had shortly before declaredhimself ' Guilty.' Yet no student of the Clerkenwell rolls will doubt itwas an incident of the commonest kind. It was rare for a prisoner toplead his clergy as a declinatory plea. In a considerable proportion ofcases, the plea was made in arrest of judgment after a previous pleadingof innocence, followed by trial and conviction. But in the greatmajority of cases, the pleading for Benefit of Clergy was made by aculprit, who had already avoided a trial, that could have had only oneconclusion, by putting himself ' Guilty.' To commit yet another perjury would not vex the conscience of acallous malefactor. But some of the persons, who to regain theirliberty had in the bishop's presence to swear themselves innocent ofwhat they knew themselves to be guilty, were no habitual criminals,but men far from utterly devoid of conscientiousness, though in amoment of weakness and urgent distress they had picked a purse, orcarried a silver wine-cup off from a tavern. A few of them weremen of honour and sensibility, who in days of universal duelUng had